AFTER   EVEREST
workmanship. No single ant must be admitted to the^ice
chest, and the carpenter sees to it that his work allows
no crevice to exist. Like most comments of the West
upon the East, it is only a half-truth to say that things
don't fit; but it does, at any rate, bring out the easy-
going patience of India.
Another remarkable thing about India is her apparently
casual way of thinking. The Indian will often accept a
substitute as if it were equal in value with the real thing.
He has great respect for a sannyasi—the devotee who has
renounced the world, and, clad in a saffron cloth, wanders
from temple to temple. But how few Indians differentiate
between the true devotee and the idle scoundrel who puts
on the required clothes and adopts the sannyasi's life simply
in order to get free food without having to work for if L
If a missionary wants to " go down " well with the Indian,
let him put on a cassock, or similar dress, and they will
" fall" for him every time! Few stop to inquire what
the cassock signifies. Closely allied to this casual outlook
is the fact, which we Westerners fail to understand, that
so many Indian minds are capable of being deluded by a
superstition even though all evidence contradicts it.
An Indian science master was teaching in a college on
the subject of astronomy, and explaining how^the earth's
shadow, cast by the sun, causes the eclipses of the moon.
The missionary who was the principal of the college hap-
pened to come round to the classroom whilst this lesson
was going on. A few days later, the science master came to
the principal's room, and asked if he might have a day's
leave.
" What for ? " asked the principal.	f
" There's an eclipse of the moon to-morrow, and I must
go to my temple."
" Well, can't you fit that in with your work ? The
exams, are near, and we don't want the boys to fail because
they don't know their science properly."
" Oh, but, sir, I must go to the temple at the right times
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